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UNC basketball history bulges with championships, All-Americans and future NBA stars.
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So it’s a tall task to narrow all of those players down to an all-time starting five. But as part of the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” interview series, Antawn Jamison was a good sport and agreed to do so.
I posed the question like this to Jamison, who was the consensus national player of the year at UNC in 1998:
Pretend you are playing Duke’s all-time starting five. Take yourself out of the equation. And give me your own personal all-time UNC starting five.
“That’s a good one,” he said. “OK, I’m on the verge of Phil Ford and Ed Cota — I’m gonna start off with Phil Ford as my point (guard).”
Jamison then quickly named Michael Jordan as his shooting guard and then began an internal debate between Vince Carter and Jerry Stackhouse as his small forward before settling on Carter.
For the two frontcourt positions, Jamison briefly couldn’t decide where to put Rasheed Wallace.
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“I will go with Rasheed Wallace as my four,” he said. Then, reconsidering: “No, Rasheed is my five (center) and James (Worthy) is my four (power forward).”
So, his final answer?
“Phil Ford, Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, Rasheed Wallace and James Worthy,” Jamison proclaimed.
Whenever you’re narrowing a list like that down to five, you’re going to have some controversial omissions. Jamison’s list is heavy on players from 1974-1999. And he left off Tyler Hansbrough, UNC’s all-time leading scorer, for instance, in favor of Wallace, who only played two college seasons with the Tar Heels but had a better NBA career.
Jamison also didn’t put anyone who played before 1974 on his team, leaving out older luminaries like Charlie Scott, Bobby Jones, Walter Davis, Bob McAdoo, Billy Cunningham and Lennie Rosenbluth.
Players like Brad Daugherty, Kenny Smith, Al Wood, Stackhouse and Sam Perkins also didn’t make it, nor did anyone who played in the 2000s at UNC, even though UNC won three national championships during this century under the tutelage of head coach Roy Williams. Jamison’s full interview can be heard on the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” podcast or The Charlotte Observer’s YouTube channel.
This story was originally published August 11, 2026 at 5:45 AM with the headline “Antawn Jamison picks his all-time UNC basketball starting five. Do you agree?.”
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